Religion and Politics

In my mind, if America was a country strongly influence by its Christian majority, Congress and state legislatures would be bolstering the social safety net.  Citizens would be glad to help their neighbors.  Hungry children would not exist in America.  Healthcare would be a right for all.  Currently, the only people who have a right to healthcare are prisoners.  We would be better caretakers of the land and the environment.  I remember reading a book entitled, “The Conscience of the Corporation” in college.  Even then, I knew that a corporation was not a person with a conscience or with religious beliefs.  I ranted against the book in class.  Now we have the SCOTUS ruling that corporations do have religious beliefs that have to be honored.  The business corporation exists for only one purpose:  to make a profit.  They hire lawyers who think not in terms of what is right or wrong, but what is possible.  They are paid to bend the law as far as possible. 

             There was a post on Facebook describing the Conservative Republican Jesus.  It is a little over the top but as with all such diatribes there is much truth in it.

Republican Jesus ™ is very different than the Jesus you and I are familiar with. First off, he is White. Not just white, but White. Republican Jesus ™ has a special place in his heart for America. Specifically, White America. Do you doubt this? Ask yourself why anyone who believes in a colorblind Jesus would even conceive of praying for the death of Obama? No, only those who follow Republican Jesus ™ would even think that such a prayer could, or should, be answered. If you are currently thinking that racism has nothing to do with the unprecedented hatred of Obama, go away, I’m talking to the grownups

Republican Jesus ™, by the way, is a big supporter of the Confederacy. Why he let them lose the War of Northern Aggression is a mystery. But all “real” Americans know that the South will rise again and Republican Jesus ™ will lead the way back to glory. Or something like that.  How the Northern and Mid-western Red states fit into this Southern revival is also a mystery.

Republican Jesus ™ loves guns. Loves them! Never mind all that silly talk of beating swords into plowshares! Every good member of the church of Republican Jesus ™ should have, at minimum, enough armament to hold off an invasion by those commie Nazi liberal hordes that are coming any day now. Or the ATF, whichever shows up first. Or maybe just enough to wipe out a schoolroom filled with kids when their excellent parenting skills manifest themselves in the next Columbine tragedy.

Remember, conservatives, to complain about anti-bullying programs being government overreach afterwards!

Republican Jesus ™ loves the rich. Ignore that whole “camel through the eye of a needle” garbage. Republican Jesus ™ wants you to be prosperous! It’s called “prosperity theology” and it percolates throughout the conservative religious fervor. God rewards the faithful with material wealth. Very spiritual stuff. If your idea of spiritual is a McMansion.

But Republican Jesus ™ is not just about love.  Republican Jesus ™ also hates and, boy, does he hate!

Republican Jesus ™ hates the poor. This is the flip side of “prosperity theology”. If God rewards the faithful with riches, than the poor are obviously NOT of the faith and deserve what they get. This is, in part, why conservatives hate the social safety nets of welfare, food stamps and Medicaid. Those (and by “those” I mean those) people don’t worship Republican Jesus ™ and are unworthy of being helped. Besides if you feed them, they’ll just breed!  Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer of South Carolina actually said that. And he meant it.

Republican Jesus ™ hates The Gay. They’re sinners, after all.  It says so right there in the Bible next to the part about shellfish being an abomination.  Nothing demonstrates the compassionate conservatives’ dedication to the teachings of Republican Jesus ™ like blocking legislation for same sex marriage and calling homosexuals pedophiles while enjoying a nice shrimp cocktail before a delicious lobster dinner.

Also, Republican Jesus ™ gave us AIDS, and STDs in general, as punishment for homosexuality. Of course, this ignores the fact that lesbians (a well-known subset of homosexuality) have the lowest rate of STDs, including AIDS, among all adult population groups. So as far as punishment goes, half of the “sinners” are better off than the rest of us, statistically speaking. Maybe Republican Jesus ™ likes him some girl on girl action?

Republican Jesus ™ hates Muslims. Muslims are scary because some of them do bad things to innocent people. That makes them all evil terrorists. This is not to be confused with White Christian Militia types who blow up abortion clinics or plot political assassinations in Republican Jesus’ ™ name. Those people are martyrs and heroes. Or they were crazy lone wolves having nothing to do with Republican Jesus ™. It depends on which channel you’re interviewing on, Fox or MSNBC.

Republican Jesus ™ totally hates Liberals. Liberals are the pawns of Satan George Soros trying to destroy the greatest country ever made on this 6000 year old planet (conservative moderates are almost as bad and must be expunged!). Compromising with a Liberal is a terrible sin in the eyes of Republican Jesus ™ and must not be tolerated.

Finally, Republican Jesus ™ hates science with a passion bordering on obsession. 

 Is there any doubt about their disregard of science?  Science knows that the earth is millions of years old, not 5000 years old.  That in itself is reason to block education.  The more people know the less likely they will follow the acceptable creed.  We have a US Senator who believes that climate change is not occurring because God promised never again to destroy the earth after Noah landed the ark.  Is that a reason to block any policy or money concerning climate change?

Max Weber wrote in his book “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” that conservative Christians believe that their financial success is a reflection of their eternal salvation.  Calvinistic theology teaches in predestination.  Either you are saved or you are not. There is no way to know and good works have no effect on salvation. The more money one amasses, the higher the likelihood that your soul is saved.  Why else would God look so favorably and shower such benefits?  However, since good works have no effect on salvation, why bother to do any?  This may explain why these Christians don't care about their fellow man and vote to cut the social safety net rather than pay an extra dime in taxes.

I do believe that the electorate in some states believes it is a sin to vote for a Democrat.  Why else do they re-elect people like Sam Brownback who is bankrupting his state or Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachman and Steven King who are 3 of the dumbest members of the House of Representatives?  Why elect a state legislator who thinks proposing a law requiring everyone to attend Church is allowed under the Constitution?  By the way, God wrote the Constitution according to the religious right.  That’s why he loves America so much—not all of America, just White Christian America.

That God supposedly made man in his own image is a mainstay of Christianity.  Did he make only some people in his image?  Or was it all people, gays, blacks etc.?  The Polynesian concept of creation is interesting.  God made man out of clay.  He baked the first one and did not cook him long enough.  He came out pale and that was the “white man”.  The next attempt he cook man too long, and that was the “black man”.  Finally, he cooked a man just right and that was the “brown man”.  I rather like that story!